New boot break in hike. No blisters, but man my feet were done. Did the route with a 30 lbs day pack on and was comfortable on the short climbing sections. Today was also the first storm of the fall season. Managed to get out before any serious rain began to fall.

We were at the trailhead around 10 am with temperatures around the mid 70's. This was a beautiful day above the clouds and smog of LA. The trail is well maintained, steep in the last third with scree in some locations but walk-able especially with hiking sticks. Also, watch out for sharp Yucca’s. We kept batting the flies away while at the peak. The peak register, a red tin can, was missing but we did find a Geocache nearby. We took about 2 hours up and 2 and a half down mostly to enjoy the mountain views and vegetation.

Just completed my 20th summit of Strawberry Peak via the West Ridge. Awesome conditions as the marine layer rolled in and stopped right along the ridge. Climbed up through the clouds on the 3rd class section and topped out looking down onto an awesome layer of clouds that slowly began to roll over the ridge. So of course when I go to take some pics I find out my camera batteries are dead. Would have been some great shots.

Found some enjoyable fourth class by heading up the spine of the ridge directly. Fun scramble, a bit spicy in one or two places, and Colby Canyon's a pretty area as well. I'll do this one again. I'm a bit curious what the standard class 2-3 route (replete with painted arrows) is like now.

This was the second peak on a semi-epic day of HPS peak bagging with Bob. We started with Josephine, Strawberry, then Lawlor in the morning. Then a drive up Wilson. Then we spotted San Gabriel, vaguely recalled that it was an HPS peak, so we went and tagged Markham, Lowe, Disappointment, and San Gabriel. Then Bob thought that Mt. Harvard was an HPS peak as well, so we went and tagged that one. The crux was squeezing through the security fence around the telecommunications facility at the top--helps to be skinny. We still had some daylight and a full moon, so then we did a loop around Iron, Round Top, Granite, and Rabbit.

Thoroughly enjoyable day. Perfect weather, great views, nice hiking/scrambling, and I enjoyed the spontaneous nature of just seeing a peak, thinking "that looks like an HPS bump!" and heading out to it.

The main thing I remember climbing this peak is how hot it was and I ran out of water. I had to push my tee shirt through the water screen atop a water tank along the ridge. I then squeezed my wet tee shirt wringing as much salty and dirty water into my parched throat. I don't know how I didn't get sick from the stagnant water since a ranger told me even rats fall through the screen guard! Yuk!

Completed a loop starting on Josephine Fire Road and ran up to the west Strawberry saddle trail. I hiked the trail until I was on the west side of the main ridge, then cut up onto the main west ridge trail. I hiked up to the summit after taking a brief wrong turn that led me into class 4 territory. Back on the class 3 route, I enjoyed climbing to the summit. It was much like a jungle gym-just enjoying doing some simple climbing on the big chunky rocks. Lots of fun. Came down the east ridge and rode my bike from Red Box (where I left it) to Josephine Road.

I climbed up the trail from just up 2 from Red Box. I ran on the trail to the saddle between Mt. Lawlor and Strawberry Pk. I climbed the east Strawberry Ridge to the summit without any trouble. Great day, wonderful views.